Changing the World one Word at a Time

Handsome Goat: A Funny Short Story To Help You Understand People Better

Sometimes, less is more. So I will make this post short. I hope it passes across the intended message: That most conflicts stem from misunderstanding. Below is a comment I saw in a Bellanaija blog about being politically correct. By the way, Atoke is one of my favorite bloggers; I love her works.

‘So I offended a friend of mine who is a single mum last week. She put up a picture of her son who’s about 10-11 or so and he looked so cute and adorable! I gushed in my normal way and typed: ‘such a cute puppy!’ Come and see how babe flipped! That I’m calling her son created in the image of God an animal. I tried to explain to her that it’s only a metaphorical statement and that it’s meant to be a compliment. Normally when I see cute children or people whom I find adorable, I call them bunny, teddy, puppy, kitten, doll, etc. But she got even more offended and told me my own son is a handsome goat (btw I don’t have kids). I quickly apologized and took back my statement. I tried to call her to apologize over the phone, but she kept cutting the call.

I was surprised at her outburst but I tried to understand. As a mum she was trying to protect her son, and some people generally more sensitive than others. I have a male friend whom I call puppy because I find him adorable, and he loves it! My colleague calls people she adores Baby Monkey, This is actually the first time I ever got an outburst for calling someone what I considered a pet name. So please guys, do you think I took it too far (politically incorrect), or is the mum overreacting?’

Like I said, I read the above comment in another blog. I shared it to help us learn from it.

3 thoughts on “Handsome Goat: A Funny Short Story To Help You Understand People Better”

Hahahaha! Well I also have this friend of mine who reacted the same way, I had a chat with her and asked “how is our beautiful kid?” and she flared up saying I called her daughter a baby goat. My goodness, I was really surprised because this friend of mine read English in the university. I tried explaining to her that I meant the second meaning of kid and I meant no harm, but she didn’t listen. I had to consult my dictionary to confirm the different meanings for kid and I was correct.

Hahahahaa! That mum of the lovely boy( restrained myself from typing ‘puppy’) must have some other beef with her friend because if she didnt she would have let goand wont even go to the extent of cutting her friends calls or calling her friend’s future child a ‘handsome goat’. But getting more serious, i feel our educational level or Social upbringing affects the way we see or view a particular situation. The people we interact with or where we live or are raised affects the way we see life. Some other mother might have been grinning from ear to ear if she was the one they called her son ‘a cute puppy’. But for this our particular mum, it was a no-no. She has probably not heard anyone call a kid a puppy before, she also probably is not cut out for all those western -wanna be like rubbish. Now her friend is bringing it on her Son, Haba!
I feel we should understand and choose our friends better and also those we hang out with. it will save us all a whole lot of worry, hate and bad blood. I had a friend in the university who grew up in one of the eastern states( please no hating from my igbo brothers), we graduated and he came over to lagos to job hunt. During those tough days of Job hunting, he got into a relationship with one of these ‘Lagos Ajebo’ babes. She was used to such terms like ‘dear’, ‘Sugar’ while appreciating a help or just being polite. She also attended one of top secondar schools in Lagos then. There was this particular day we all went to the beach to relax and not knowing that this very trait in my guy’s girlfriend was already pissing my guy off, We got to the beach and my guy’s girl friend wanted to carry the cooler with the drinks and i (am a gentleman) quickly told her not to worry and that i would do it. She was happy and quickly said ‘Oh, thanks Sugar’. and turned and left. Mennnn, you need to see my guy’s face. It just hardened. My guy just boned. I looked at him and asked what the matter was, he couldnt say anything but after pushing him for sometime, he stuttered out ‘ My guy, i no just understand this my babe sef, how she go just dey call everyone, sugar, love, dear like dat’ Which kind nonsense be dat. I no like am’. I was stunned at first but later i bursted out laughing, and he later joined me in laughter. He explained that he needed to be careful before his property becomes another man’s property. That was my guy for you. I knew he wasn’t used to such mannerisms/vocabulary. I just told him to chill and that he had nothing to worry about. I then asked him to tell me what his babe normally calls him. His response? Well, that will be another gist for another day. Good work Anne. Keep it up, its been long i stopped by. Would do so more often now. Ciao

‘I feel we should understand and choose our friends better and also those we hang out with. It will save us all a whole lot of worry, hate and bad blood.’ That is so much true. I believe people are generally not bad and hat heir actions are formed by their genes, upbringing and life experiences. So people with similar backgrounds are more likely to understand each other better. Let’s take Chidimma’s friend for example, the fact that her thought first went to ‘young goat’ instead of ‘young child’ in reference to ‘kid’ is probably because of her English degree. The first meaning that comes to kind to common folks when kid is mentioned is child. I actually had to google ‘kid’ to confirm the second meaning (We probably studied that in Primary school but I have since forgotten).

I feel your my-girl-shouldn’t-call-other-guys-sugar friend, the fact that I also grew up in Eastern Nigeria may have something to do with it. It’s great to have you back. Thank you very much for stopping by and I look forward to your contributions.